Once upon a time a writer for epinions named Shopaholic_man wanted a new modeling amplifier.  He was an amateur guitar player so he went to a local music store to look at combo guitar amplifiers.  The first amplifier he tried was the Vypyr 15, but it was too small.   He also looked at a Vypyr 75 and a 120, but they were too big (and too expensive for shopaholic_man's budget).   However, he also saw the Peavey Vypyr 30 and he brought it home. 

The Peavey Vypyr 30

First, this is a mid sized combo amp. It has one 12 inch driver and thirty watts. It is not actually a tube amp, but Peavey claims a technology Transtube that makes it sound like tubes. Like my Line 6 Modelling amplifier, it's very close.  Aside from hating the spelling, why couldn't they just call it a VIPER?, the Vypyr is a sturdy amp with a black finish and a silver and black grill cloth. It is actually a bit bigger and heavier than my 75 watt Line Six Spider III guitar amp, but it can be carried by a single person.  The 30 is a very reasonably priced amp in the series.  Although its only 30 watts it puts out plenty of sound. Unless you really need lots of volume, the 30 has quite a kick to it.  For less than $250.00, I found it to be a great deal.

What is Missing from the 30? What Isn't?

The 30 is the mid price point of the Vypyr line, so of course first, you don't get the killer power of the 75 or the 120. 

However, unlike the baby 15, you get a whole knob full of stomp box effects built in. 

The Vypyr 30 has a line out for recording, but it doesn't have USB out for direct computer connection (the 75 and 120 do).   (Ironically the software program for the computer is included). 

On the back of the Vypyr 30 a footpedal switch is included, so if you want to purchase the Sanpera 1 footswitch, you can make lots of switches on the fly. My son and I played withe Sanpera 1.  It switches between the different banks of effect combos, but wasn't something we could readily figure out.  Look here for a review of the Sanpera 1 foot pedal later, I am certain I will pick it up eventually.

Modeling Amplifier

Musicians often choose a particular amp for a particular sound. Any fan of classic heavy metal knows the sound of a set of Marshall stacks. That heavy tube driven sound is unmistakable.  Perhaps you prefer that gritty English 60's rock sound pop sound like the Rolling Stones or The Kinks.  Death Metal fans may prefer a heavily overdriven high gain amp to sound like Ensiferum or Turisas.  Once you've made it you can choose JUST the right amp for classic 60s rock to 21st century Viking metal from Finland.  However, if you are an amateur musician or just a hobbyist like myself, the only way to come close to bringing many of those sounds home in one easy to use package is a modeling amp. A modeling amp mimics the sound of many different styles of amplifiers from a very clean sound, to a high gain high distortion sound and everything in between.  While the Peavey can't match various historical amps exactly, it comes close enough to get many of the tones that you are seeking.

The Amp Models

The Vypyr 30 boasts 24 amp models, but it is actually 12 amps with two tone settings each, low gain and high gain. This feature is the same on all Vypyr models.  The low gain channels show a green LED, the overdrive channels show a red LED.

Twn, in green has a bright clean sound.  I liked it, this has the traditional clean sound. No twang, no distortion, no anything, just the chords and notes you play. Its a bit brighter with just a touch of fuzz in red.

Dix. In green, I only heard a subtle difference from Twn, in Red, its a bit brighter, kind of a cool 60s pop sound.

Pixi in Green, its a warmer sound than the first couple settings. Red gives a bit more aggressive tone.

Brit - The clean channel has the British invasion sound, but I felt it more in the red setting.

Basically, as you strum around the dial, the amps get progressively more distortion in both settings. The first six amps on low gain sound clean with various shades of warmth and brightness, the second six low gain settings introduce a slight bit of distortion. The high gain settings get increasingly distorted and fuzzy sounding for alternative and metal style playing.  The difference between this amp and the 30?  The 30 is louder!

The Build in Effects

The Vypyr 30 also comes with a built in set of effects called "rack" effects. Simply put, the sort of effects a musician would have mounted to a rack to alter the tone are included.  The rack effects are featured on the whole line of Vypyr amplifiers.

Effects included are the Octaver, Phaser (think Pink, Pink Floyd that is), Rotary, Reverse (weird), Pitch shift, Flanger, slap back, envelope filter (kind of an adjustable wah),chorus, tremelo and Looper. The looper doesn't work without a foot switch though, so its not an option on the 15.  Each effect can be adjusted. For example you can adjust the strength of the effect or the frequency of the effect.

Tap Tempo

This effect isn't included on the main knobs but as a small button after the bank buttons. It controls the delay effect. At first it was frustrating, because I was getting a delay effect even when I had both rack and stomp boxes in standby mode. However, after reading the instructions again, I realized that this little button was at fault. After I learned how to use it, I liked it.

But There's More - The Stomp Box Effects

On all but the 15, the Peavey Vypyr sports a knob called Stomp Box. As any guitar player knows, a stomp box is any effect that comes between you and your guitar that you can STEP on to turn on, like fuzz boxes, tube screamers, choruses etc. for various signature tones.

Stomp Box effects included are XR Wild  a "superhot overdrive pedal", X Boost (haven't quite figured it out), Fuzz (no explanation necessary!), BC chorus for fuller sounds, Squeeze for long mellow sustain (I love this one for playing David Gilmour solos),  Ring Modulator (psychedelic), Auto Wah (sorry no match for my Dunlop Cry Baby), Analog Flange (can't describe it, but it's really cool), MOG (like 3 guitars in unison, it makes duplicate notes one octave above and one octave below the note(s) you play), Analog Phase
(like flange, I can't describe it, I can say it's cool) and Tube Scream, another fuzzed out tube style sound.

Playing around with combinations of the stomp box effects, rack effects, delay, reverb and the various amps produces a lot of cool tones. For now, I still use the presets, but I am sure that in time, I will have 12 presets of my own from clean to crunchy!


The Peavey Vypyr Interface

The 30, has one more knob than the 15. From left to right, the first knob is the stomp box selector.  11 Stomp box effects (or bypass) can be selected.  Press the stomp box effect button to go into edit mode, then you can monkey around with the sound of the various effects.

Next is the amp selector, allowing you to choose your amp model. Press in the knob and the lights go from green to red, and the amp models go from low gain settings to high gain settings. Press it and hold, and you get an actual easy to use chromatic tuner.  The "amp" knob lights up to the closest note, clearly displayed around the knob, and the first effects button lights up to the left of 12 if you're flat, and to the right if you're sharp. When all the lights light up, you know you are in tune! (assuming of course that you know your E string from your G string)

Third knob is the rack effects knob. Press it in to edit the parameters and levels. I.E. if the phase effect isn't as Pink Floyd as you want it, click it to adjust. Most of your standard effects are here.

After that is pre gain allowing you to set the gain.

The following three knobs are referred to as low eq, mid eq and high eq. Very fancy Peavy, I always called them bass , midrange and treble. They double as the effects editors when you are editing an effect. Remember, hit the Stomp Box knob once to enter edit or hit the Rack Effects to edit. A small edit light emits a red LED for stomp box edit mode, green LED for rack effects edit mode and no light when you are out of edit mode.

The final knobs are post gain and of course the master volume knob which goes up to 13.  Apparently the 11 of Spinal Tap's amp wasn't loud enough for Peavey.  Nigel Tufnel But mine goes up to eleven  Peavey Booyah! Our's goes up to 13!   P'WNED!

There are inputs for one guitar, one auxillary input and one pair of headphones. Higher models also have USB outputs to record your session to a computer.  Higher models also have a SPONGE knob to limit power output.  The headphone jack is an eight inch jack. On the back is the input for a Sanpera One footpedal.

You can also store up to 12 different combinations or use the preset dozen.  The amp has 3 banks A, B & C with four settings 1,2,3 and 4. AB & C have one button to switch banks. A,B and C each have a light.  Subbanks 1-4 each have a button and a light.  A quick couple of button punches (or foot stomp with the Sanpera One foot pedal sold seperately) allows you to switch between the 12 signature sounds you stored (or the presets, if you haven't decided on any yet).  Out of the infinite number of combinations that seem possible, saving 12 seems like a nice managable amount.  My Line 6 which stores 400 seems overkill and I can never find the one I am looking for quickly. The Line Six only has 4 available for quick select. The small Peavey Vypyr 15 also only holds 4.  All the larger Peavey Vypyrs have a the same tone bank system as the 30.

Peavey Sound

I was very happy with the sound from the Peavey amp, I've been playing with this amplifer since trading in the Peavey Vypyr 15.  It was a blast to play with the stomp box and rack effects, I really loved just listening to the clean tones and then just adding different effects. Adding effects to the metal tones really gives an awesome sound.  With 30 watts of sound and a 12" driver this puts out plenty of sound too!  You could entertain a small hall, entertain your friends or play in the garage with this. When you are not playing, it emits a very low hum. Once you start to play though, you hear what you play and nothing more.

Comparing this to another modeling amp, my Line Six Spider III, I have to say its much easier to dial in a variety of sounds, because of the build in presets on the Line Six series.  Peavey leaves it up to you to determine what amp settings are used by AC/DC, Neil Young, etc. Many of the Line Six song and artist settings are spot on, and sound like a particular artists sound, or give you just that sound in a particular song.  Line Six has the advantage if you are seeking a particular sound. To be fair, however, the 400 presets are only available on the Spider III 75 and above and not on the direct competitors for the 15 and the 30.

Documentation

One thing I really liked about the Peavey Modeling amp was its ample documentation. All the features of the amp and how to adjust settings was explained in enough detail so that you could understand how it all worked. The documents are all included in PDF files on an enclosed CD ROM.  The 30 also had paper documentation. For some reason, the 15 only had the CD, and didn't have a paper booklet.

Testing One, Two, Three

I tested the Peavey 30 at home with my Fender Telecaster guitar connected with Snap Jack's guitar cables.  My son and I also played with it for quite a while at the music shop with a regular guitar cable and a Gibson Les Paul Gold Top.  (We wish we could have taken that home!).  We also played the Vypyr 30 using the Sanpera One Foot Pedal.  That is a purchase and review for a later day however. 

I listened to the amps speakers for many tests, and I also listened with a pair of Samson CH700 Studio Monitor Headphones via the 1/8 inch headphone jack on the front of the amp.  The sound was good both ways.

Summary

I liked the Peavey Vypyr 30, and decided that it was the modeling amp that was JUST RIGHT!. For the price, this combo amp is packed with features and has a rich full sound. I am not aware of any other amp with so many sounds for such a reasonable price. For only $100.00 more than the already loaded and reasonable Vypyr 15, the 30 adds twice the power, twice the effects and the ability to use a foot pedal.  The value and price of this Peavey amp makes for five stars.

Recommended: Yes